Video: our Eurobike three countries tour

Austria, Lichtenstein and Germany plus a really, really big hill. All in a day's ride.

Bielerhöhe Pass

Normally when we go out to the Eurobike show the sum total of our riding ambition is to nick a few of the Nextbikes they bring for the week and roll into town for a Pizza. But this year the Media Days bit of the show (where you ride bikes in the mountains) and the show bit of the show (where you traipse round the halls fuelled by various pork products) were a day and 180km apart. So, we thought. That sounds like a nice ride.

And then we bumped into Ollie from Hunt Bike Wheels and Transcontinental 2015 winner Josh Ibbett, who had a similar plan. Except theirs involved going into Lichtenstein for a coffee, as they hadn't been to Lichtenstein before. And neither had we. So we all decided to ride together. And I made a video. And here it is.

Highlights of the ride included:

Going down the 25-odd hairpins of the Bielerhöhe Pass (pic at the top), especially rewarding as the climb up the other side is really pretty easy, with about 30km of false flat valley road and only about 3km of actual climbing

The all-you-can-eat buffet at the house of cheese

Chasing the one-legged guy into Bregenz

A cold Weissbier at the end in the sun

On the other hand, there was:

A very damp start which meant wet feet until gone midday

The wholly unnecessary climb out of Lichtenstein which was brutal in the 27° afternoon heat

Getting to Bludenz too late to catch the sprint finish at the Tour of Austria, that we didn't even know was on

On balance though, a great day out. Thanks to Simplon for letting us ride the bikes back to the show. You can read Stu's review of the Pavo Gran Fondo Disc here; we haven't reviewed the Simplon Pride yet but Davey really liked it and we'll certainly try and get one in for a longer-term test.

Dave is a founding father of road.cc and responsible for kicking the server when it breaks. In a previous life he was a graphic designer but he's also a three-time Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling world champion, and remains unbeaten through the bog. Dave rides all sorts of bikes but tends to prefer metal ones. He's getting old is why.